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Most know them for their 90-second 'BodyBreak' television spots, but some people in the Northwest Territories got to meet Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod personally this week.

The duo spoke in Fort Smith, N.W.T. earlier this week, and in Hay River Tuesday evening.

People packed Hay River's community hall, to hear Johnson and McLeod talk about how to stay fit and reduce the risk of diabetes.

'Our message is more important now than it ever has been.'- Joanne McLeod, 'BodyBreak' co-creator

"The issue here is don't let your environment dictate what you do, don't let it bring you down," Johnson said at the event in Hay River.

"So you can always be positive, and you've got a lot of great facilities here that you can utilize; you can use them 12 months a year. So don't look for an excuse not to be out and be active and also eat properly."

When Johnson and McLeod first started filming their BodyBreak videos nearly 26 years ago, they had no idea how big they would become.

"We thought, 'Well, maybe this is just a very expensive video that we did and we can show our kids in 25 years,'" McLeod said.

But of course things turned out very different for the couple. Since June 1988, they've shot hundreds of BodyBreak fitness-advice videos — everything from exercises to do on airplanes, shot in 1988 in Toronto, to promoting cycling, shot along the South Shore of Nova Scotia in 1996.

Now as the couple approaches BodyBreak's 26th anniversary, McLeod says they don't plan on stopping their health promotion work anytime soon.

"We feel at this point … there is just so much more health risk out there that people are facing, that our message is more important now than it ever has been."

That message — "keep fit and have fun" — has even crept into some of the interviews the couple did with CBC North while visiting the N.W.T.

Johnson and McLeod are in Yellowknife Wednesday shooting a spot with Ice Pilots and will be speaking at 6 p.m. at Northern United Place.

This is the couple's second time in the city. They were in Yellowknife for 1.5 hours last winter when they participated in The Amazing Race Canada and jumped into Great Slave Lake.